By Marty Snow, LASP, Univ. of Colorado

SORCE scientists took part in two Working Groups at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland in January 2011. For more information on the ISSI organization, please visit their website at http://www.issibern.ch/. Below is a brief summary of the two January gatherings.

Cross-Calibration of FUV Datasets

Marty Snow attended the working group on Cross-Calibration of FUV Datasets, Jan. 10-11. The solar, stellar, lunar, and cometary observations from SORCE SOLSTICE are a critical element in transferring absolute calibration to instruments on Mars Express, Venus Express, SOHO, Voyager, etc. The results of this working group will be assembled into a single volume that will be published by Springer later this year.

Observing and Modeling Earth’s Energy Flows

That same week, Peter Pilewskie participated in a workshop entitled Observing and Modeling Earth’s Energy Flows. They focused on the significant uncertainties in a number of key energy exchange and feedback processes in the climate system which limit the accuracy in the projections of climate change. Attendees identified and discussed the most critical of these processes, those that cause the largest uncertainties, and attempted to identify the experimental and theoretical studies that are needed to reduce these uncertainties. ISSI invited over 60 leading scientists to this workshop, covering a wide range of disciplines, to make a comprehensive assessment of the ongoing research. What makes this ISSI workshop different than a typical conference is that scientists from very diverse fields were involved in a very fruitful, cross-disciplinary discussion. The proceedings of this workshop will appear in a volume of ISSI’s Space Sciences series in the spring of 2012.